Wall Street ready for the bell / But getting there may be a problem

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, September 16, 2001

2001-09-16 04:00:00 PDT New York -- After tech workers completed a successful test of the systems of the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, the chairman of the exchange said the biggest stock market in the world will reopen tomorrow -- six days after terrorist attacks halted trading.

Outside the exchange's Broad Street headquarters, a worker on a crane hung a 200-foot American flag across the building's facade, which will greet returning traders and financial workers who fled lower Manhattan when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

"We are very confident that come Monday morning, the greatest economy on Earth will be back in business," said Richard Grasso, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. "When that bell rings, we will send an important message that the American way of life goes on."

But before the opening bell, traders will observe a two-minute moment of silence. A Marine Corps band will play "God Bless America" at a ceremony led by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki.

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The opening of the market, along with the Nasdaq and Amex markets, is seen as a symbol of the U.S. economy returning to some sense of normalcy -- even though financial analysts predict a turbulent day of trading.

The six-day delay is the longest break in trading since President Franklin Roosevelt declared a bank holiday in 1933 during the Great Depression.

But Grasso said he believes the delay has given investors a chance to calm their emotions and take a "reasonable approach" when trading resumes.

"I'm hopeful that will return a rationality to what otherwise would've been an irrational level of trading," Grasso said.

On the floor of the exchange, dozens of busy traders and telecommunications workers tested phones and data lines. Grasso said firms representing 90 percent of the market's trading volume had been able to make calls and transfer data to the exchange. Companies unable to connect to the trading floor have been offered the use of data lines by rival firms, he said.

After the twin towers collapsed, two key telecommunications switching stations in the Wall Street area were knocked out. Verizon Communications crews have been laying new fiber optic cable across lower Manhattan to reroute all voice and data traffic.

But one trader on Broad Street, who asked not to be named, said his firm had not been able to get through when calling the exchange this weekend. "We keep getting 'All circuits are busy' " messages, the trader said.

Officials are still scrambling to find ways to get an estimated 75,000 to 125,000 financial workers to their offices in the Wall Street area. A few subway stops have opened, although the Wall Street station remains closed. City officials plan to open a corridor east of the disaster site for buses and cars headed to the financial district.

The question remains how many workers will brave the smoke-filled air and soot-covered streets to return to an area where many lost co-workers and friends.

"I'm not afraid to come back," said Lori Ramsey, 27, who had to evacuate her company's offices on Broad Street through a cloud of dust and debris. "But it's disheartening to see what's become of the area. . . . I think it's going to be really quiet and somber for a long time."